23 July 2002
National’s “costings” tricky even by Enron standards
“The costings produced under pressure by the National Party today are tricky even by Enron standards,” says Finance
Minister Michael Cullen.
“They have a $2.6 billion list of promises to finance and claim they would allocate $800 million in new spending for
each of the next three years.
“Yet the spending track they have produced is lower than that allocated in the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update
by $166 million in 2003-04, $356 million in 2004-05 and $504 million in 2005-06.
“No wonder National has given up on producing a plausible alternative line by line budget. Their numbers are a fiscal
nonsense. They simply cannot be made to add up,” Dr Cullen said.
Ends